Monitoring devices of various types to monitor patient physiologic, biochemical or biometric variables have long been used by the medical community. A plethora of testing and monitoring equipment has moved out of the hospital into the doctors' offices and, in some cases, these systems have even progressed into home monitoring systems.
While these devices have clearly been extremely useful, many of these devices require that a patient be located at home, or in close proximity to a telephone system such that results of the monitoring can be transmitted over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to some form of analysis center. Such devices do not necessarily lend themselves to the mobile life style in which many individuals find themselves.
For example, it is difficult for a busy person to stop in the middle of the day, proceed to a monitoring station, whether in a home or in some office, take the appropriate measurements, and then proceed with the business of the day. This is simply not possible and adds a level of stress to the already stressful situation of having to monitor physiologic, biochemical or biometric signals. For a seriously ill person, it is often very difficult for the person to move to a personal computer or to attach a monitor to a connection to the PSTN system.
What would truly be useful is a system for monitoring physiologic, biochemical or biometric characteristics of an individual on a mobile basis. Such a system would require little, if any, interaction with a monitoring device. Signals that are collected would then be sent in an automated manner to an analysis center or a physician's office. Alternatively, a physician could interrogate the system worn by a patient while the patient is mobile to obtain the physiologic signals of interest or create changeable automatic signal acquisition protocols depending on the patient's condition. Additionally, if more appropriate in a particular clinical setting, the patient could initiate sending of a signal to the physician.